This was just to good to pass. The legendary Lee 'Scratch' Perry and Andrew WK in the studio working on Lee's album. This seems like an odd duo to start with, but throw in a big bag of green, group clapping, some colouring markers and Jesus Christ, and it makes for one crazy studio session...and by crazy I mean crazy. By the way, Lee's hat and kicks are serious, and true evidence that Lee is from the future, and has been sent here to relay messages from Jesus in the form of ill dub beats. Jesus crystals don't lie...Respect. [via PitchforkTV]
Recently in Culture Category
Christopher Nolan (the director of Dark Knight and Momento) made his directorial debut in 1998 with a movie he wrote called "Following". The movie revolves around the main character Bill. Bill is described as "an unemployed aspiring writer who lives a solitary and boring life in London, England. Bill has a fascination with people, and with hopes of finding material to write about, begins to pick individuals out of a crowd, and to follow them." Okay, does that sound a lot like Twitter? Did Nolan have early insight into a personality disorder affecting generations of people today? Think about the massive popularity of Twitter and Facebook, in essence, aren't these sites set up to stalk people virtually?
Yah yah, I know I'm reaching, but today is Friday the 13th and to be honest when I receive email notifications that someone I don't know is following me on Twitter I get a bit nervous. The idea that strangers are silently following your every tweet is a bit creepy, no? I guess the point of this post is becareful who you follow and be aware of who's following you...mmoohahaha....
P.S. You're all more than welcome to stalk...I mean follow me on Twitter!
Flickr clock is an ongoing project. By joining the group, Flickstr's can then contribute their videos and display them on a timeline at the exact time they were taken. The theme here is to capture a "real moment" in time, so don't go uploading lol cats, movie trailers, or your latest slideshow animation, as those will be screened and removed. The more the merrier, so tell all your friends as they are hoping to grab a worldwide snapshot of specific moments in time....reminds me of the Van Halen track.
Microsoft's future montage video, named 2019, seems weak to me in terms of vision. According to this video the future consists of us be surrounded by touch screens and accessing content from multiple devices. The interface in typical MS style is cumbersome and seemingly slow (maybe it's the music).
Don't we pretty much have most of these capabilities right now? I mean, outside of the pretty promotional design, glass screens, and digital paper. Most of these concepts and ideas were already floating around the MIT lab for years. As well, for a vision of what's to come in the next decade I would think they would reach a bit higher than what's shown here. Where is all the 3D, entertainment systems, voice navigation, organic interfaces, etc... How about showing us how our everyday lives will be improved, more efficient, and more green as a result of innovative thinking? Overall, not impressed...I would be impressed if Microsoft were even around in 2019. [via Boy Genius]
Inspired by the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama, William Sykes and Elton Montgomery, co-founded of a non-profit organization called "President Please". The organization is dedicated to abolishing the N-word and replacing it with a more positive word, "President". It's just so crazy, it might work.
Creative director Tag (Ryo Taguchi), photo retoucher IMKW (Imakawa), and contemporary artist cum coder Immr (Yuichiro Imamura) are taking green seriously. They are the creators and collaborators in the Green Island project. With a series of photographs that transforms the streets of Tokyo into fields of green, these eco-artists are aiming to bring attention to the potential of existing developed areas in Tokyo. [via Gizmodo]
The one thing the internet has always been particularly useful for is documenting and archiving the rare and ridiculous. Unfortunately for some, they probably wish the internet never existed. Behold the 50 worst album covers.
The Kindle 2 was released today by Amazon. The Kindle is a wireless reading device that has 3G speed, 2Gig storage that holds up to 1,500 books and is said to be thinner than an iPhone. This device is sure to clean up the old book shelves. Check out the full hands on review at Gizmodo.
Barack Obama's memoirs called "Dreams from My Father" was published in 1995 and then re-released in 2004. Turns out there is an audio version of the book read by the President himself. Nothing too interesting there, however there is a part of the reading where he quotes from his former classmate Ray. Ray apparently liked to swear alot...so if you want to hear the President say things like "This shit's getting way too complicated for me", or "That guy ain't shit. Sorry ass motherf*#ker", then click here. This should sell some copies of the audio book, no doubt.
Note: NSFW
Check out the list on the Wired blog.
They're at it again at MIT's Media Lab. Students have developed a wearable computer made up of a battery powered 3M projector, webcam, and a web-enabled mobile phone. This device allows the person to project information from the phone to any surface.The cost of this set up is a surprising $350. I won't get into all the details as you can read the full coverage at Wired.
There is no doubt that modern day advances in computing has enabled hollywood to not only bring to life some amazing characters in the superhero, comic book, and sci-fi genre, but also cash in on them too. The blockbuster success of X-MEN, Batman and the Spiderman franchises have really opened the floodgates in this genre. Look out for huge budget, big action, mind blowing effects on the big screen in 2009.
Star Trek
Push
Street Fighter: the Legend of Chun Li
Watchmen
X-MEN
Astro Boy
Transformers
Terminator
G.I. Joe
There's a good article today in the Wall Street Journal called "Out of Office: Job Loss in the Age of Blogs and Twitter".
There a lot of people these days that have been laid off, looking for
work, or retiring. For some it can be quite a bleak and lonely road
ahead. Thankfully, the internet has really become a source of all
things, ranging from entertainment to social facilitator. The article
points out that online gaming, social networking and movie rentals are
on the rise as people are heading online to escape this doom and gloom
economy.
For the recently laid off or those looking
for work in a downturn economy, the internet has been a great resource
and support network. The days of veggin' on the couch flipping channels
have been substituted by interacting online: searching job sites,
participating in support forums, networking with friends, playing
games, watching movies, and other time-wasters that are available
online 24/7.
Here are some good links to see the 2009 Super Bowl ads:
My pick for best place to watch the ads. The interface is easy to navigate and the ads are broken up by quarters making it easy to find a specific ad. Video quality is good and it offers fullscreen capability.
Best quality videos w/fullscreen, but usability isn't the greatest if you want to quickly go through all the ads without accidentally clicking on an unrelated one.
http://www.spike.com/superbowl
This is the official Super Bowl site has some commercials I didn't find on the other sites, although you have to endure an NFL commercial before previewing the commercials...oh and there is no fullscreen capability
http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/43/videos/commercials
In the period when Steve Jobs left Apple, did he travel to the future and come back to implement what he saw? I guess only he will ever know, but there is no doubt in my mind that Steve Jobs is not only the smartest man in the world, but also a visionary that has shaped and evolved our culture through his innovations and his seamingly innate connection with the future. Greg Sandoval wrote an article that follows up a archived Rolling Stone interview with the great Steve Jobs from 2003 where he makes predictions on the future of the music industry and the impact of the iTunes store.
You may or may not have heard of Josh Harris, but as the trailer (see below) for the film We Live In Public states, he is "the greatest internet pioneer that you've never heard of".
I was really excited to read today about We Live In Public a film by Ondi Timoner
which won the Sundance Festival's Grand Jury prize. I remember watching
this project at the time and everyone at work gathering around a Power
Mac to watch as it went live. The video quality was poor, it was
streaming at 160x120px and it was choppy, yet we were all intrigued
with the idea of watching these people live out their lives via live
video cam 24/7.
If you're interested in reading more about the original project from back in the day I found this archived article in Wired from 2000 shortly before they went live with the project, and another from 2001.
I stumbled across this archived presentation by Jeff Han (a human-computer interface designer) at the 2006 TED conference.
It's quite inspiring when he talks about how computers should conform
to us and not the other way around. Multi-touch isn't necessarily a new
technology, but it is one that is evolving and will eventually be
accessible to the masses as the costs of touch screen monitors come
down, like HDTV's. With the introduction and popularity Apple's iPhone
and the intelligence in it's design of the touch interface, electronic
companies worldwide are racing to get more touch screen gadgets to
market as soon as possible.
One of the big hits at this years CES was Samsung's 50-inch multitouch TV.
The idea that we can free ourselves from the remote control and have a
more intuitive and connected user experience is very appealing. The
idea that the keyboards and the mouse will eventually become extinct as
computers and household appliances become touch enabled. Microsoft has
been working on Surface and I'm told that a company called Troll Touch can integrate a touch system into your Apple cinema display.
Going back to Jeff Han, who's presentation in 2006 went viral on youtube which prompted him to launch his startup Perceptive Pixel which
aims to develop and market the most advanced multi-touch systems in the
world. Check out the demo he has on the homepage just one year later in
2007. Pure dopeness!
Documentary filmmaker Gary Hustwit whose last film about a font face, Helvetica, got rave reviews and a ton of media attention in the 2007 festival circuit. His latest project explores the world of industrial design and the people who create the objects that we surround ourselves with daily. Objectified is scheduled to premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in the springtime. You can view the trailer for Objectified here.
I came across this Wired blog posting
about video search alternatives to Youtube. Seems to have generated
some interest in the community which is resulting in a growing
user-generated list of video search site. Check it out!
Earlier today I posted a link to download FREE selections from the Sundance Film Festival on iTunes. I was really hoping one of those selections would be a short film by Last Picture called ASSHOLE starring Gavin McInnes. The trailer is embeded below, and if you want to check out more shorts starring Gavin click here.
Additional info: Gavin
co-founded of Vice Magazine in Canada which eventually became a
multi-million dollar brand empire in the U.S. He left Vice in 2007 and
launched a new company called Street Boners and TV Carnage. A blend of street fashion critiques and compilations of really bad television. If you loved the DO's and DONT's section in Vice magazine then this site is for you.
History will be written tomorrow and there will be no shortage of witnesses to this monumental moment in American history. It's been reported
that ticket's to President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration tomorrow
are selling in the 5 digit price range! So if you're like me and
cutting back due to the current economic climate, you will most likely
be watching the swearing-in of the 44th President of the United States
in some other manner.
That said, I've prepared a general guide to the inauguration online.
Inauguration Home
Schedule
Get Mobile Updates
HBO Presents WE ARE ONE
The Obama Inauguration Celebration At The Lincoln Memorial
Video and Photos
LIVE STREAMS
Youtube
Joost - Inaugural Pre-Party Playlist
Twitter
MTV - BE THE CHANGE
Obama To Speak To Youth At Inauguration
PHOTOS
Oh and of course I will post the live feed tomorrow on my blog as well!
If there are any great links that I should include in this post please send me an email.
I recently read a book called "Grown Up Digital"
written by author Don Tapscott. He is the bestselling author of
"Growing Up Digital" and "Wikinomics". I found this book to be
refreshingly optimistic, insightful a great read whether you are a new
media professional, or a parent raising "Net Gen" children.
Below is an interview with the author.
